NURSES APPLAUDED ...THEN ABANDONED
INMO chief demands action on childcare
Not all superheroes wear capes, some wear scrubs and gowns. - TAOISEACH LEO VARADKAR, MARCH 17, 2020
They want to do their jobs while also knowing their children are being looked after. This is not an unreasonable demand - INMO GENERAL SECRETARY PHIL NÍ SHEAGHDHA, YESTERDAY ‘Staff have been left out of pocket’
‘Masks should have been mandatory’
THE leader of the nurses’ union has launched a damning attack on the Government, accusing it of applauding frontline workers and then abandoning them.
Phil Ní Sheaghdha told an Oireachtas committee: ‘We had to lobby and cajole and I had to write six letters to the Health Service Executive (HSE) in all, so that face masks would be made mandatory for healthcare workers.’
Ms Ní Sheaghdha launched her powerful attack as TDs learned that more than 8,000 healthcare workers have been infected by Covid-19, and Ireland’s health staff have one of the highest reported infection rates in the world.
Speaking on RTÉ Prime Time last night, Leo Varadkar contradicted Ms Ní Sheaghdha saying her were not accurate.
‘I checked that up with the HSPC today. So, at least according to them the figures that she gave were not accurate. I think so she suggested that 60% of healthcare workers were still sick with COVID. That is not the case – the HPSC says 90% have recovered,’ the Taoiseach said.
‘And they say that we’ve had 8,000 positive cases out of a healthcare workforce of 250,000 so that’s between 3% and 4% positivity rate so they’re saying that that was wrong.’
Many have been too sick to return to work and more have been left without any childcare supports.
The head of the Irish Nursing and Midwives Organisation (INMO), said: ‘There has rightly been applause and praise for frontline healthcare workers over the past three months. Yet when the applause dies down, many will be left out of pocket and without any leave.’
‘We have long sought a solution to the childcare problem facing our members. They want to do their jobs, while also knowing that their children are being looked after. This is not an unreasonable demand.’
And in a blow to Government policy, the special committee heard yesterday that masks should have been made mandatory for healthcare workers from the very start of the pandemic.
But Ms Ní Sheaghdha said she had to lobby hard to get masks made mandatory for healthcare workers.
She said that until April 22, face masks were not recommended for all healthcare workers.
She said after the HSE made face masks mandatory for all staff on April 22, there was a ‘dramatic’ drop in the number of infections. ‘We believe that face masks should have been mandatory from the very beginning in every single healthcare setting, because our testing and tracing was not, and is not, sophisticated enough to determine who is and who isn’t infected,’ she added.
The committee also heard healthcare workers had to take annual leave or leave their children with relatives for several weeks, as the State failed to provide healthcare after facilities were shut in March.
Ms Ní Sheaghdha said a survey of members found the majority relied on their partner taking annual leave or having a relative come to live in their home.
She said: ‘Some actually moved their children to a relative’s home and then didn’t see their children for eight weeks.
‘The sacrifices they made in coming to work was extraordinary, I don’t think it can be matched by any public sector representative in the midst of this Covid-19 crisis.’
She said nurses have used up most of their annual leave, but the health service is set to get busier.
Six in ten nurses are using their annual leave to care for their children, a survey by the INMO had revealed.
The results have led nursing rep
resentatives to call for greater childcare assistance to be provided to parents – including a reimbursement of childminding costs incurred during the pandemic.
The survey found that 62% have taken annual leave to care for their children, while one in five are using paid childminders. Of the 1,800 INMO members surveyed, one in ten said they are using grandparents for childcare.
Meanwhile, more than two-thirds did not have a partner available to look after their children, mainly because they are a single parent, or their partner is also an essential worker.
In anonymous comments, nurses said arranging childcare has been ‘extremely stressful’ for them.
One wrote: ‘I am in community nursing. My husband is a garda, the stress on us with three schoolgoing children has been immense in every sense. I don’t really want to hear the Government thanking us and calling us heroes.
‘They have neglected this huge issue we need help now with childcare now – financial assistance specifically. This is not going to change in the next coming months. The problem will remain if the schools only open part-time. This issue has been handled disgracefully.’
The INMO called for a range of measures to lessen childcare related concerns for its members.
These included reimbursing any additional childcare costs incurred during Covid-19, providing compensation for annual leave used to care for children, and reopening schools to facilitate children of essential workers. It also called for a scheme to pay healthcare workers for any childcare they source themselves, and for priority access to be given to nurses and midwives in accessing preschools, creches, and childminding services.
She said trolley figures are already starting to increase again, with 130 people on trolleys on Tuesday: ‘We now have two health services – one for Covid-19, and non-Covid-19. The pressure on the health service is going to increase dramatically.’
SIPTU’s health divisional organiser Paul Bell told the committee the Government focused on ‘rigid options only’ when it came to childcare for frontline workers.
Mr Bell said: ‘We are still not satisfied that proper consultation has taken place between the authorities and the frontline workers who are reliant on the State for their childcare requirements.
‘Ultimately, this seriously flawed and inflexible approach resulted in the depletion of essential healthcare workers from the front line of the fight against Covid-19, and a financial loss for many of them,’ he said.
‘We believe these flaws must be addressed and remedied as a matter of priority in advance of any potential second wave.’
‘Stress of childcare has been immense’